The One hundred and thirty-fourth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

April 26, 1923. Tolkien's review "Holy Maidenhood (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)" is published in The Times Literary Supplement.
April 28, 1972. Tolkien writes a letter to Mrs Robertson (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), explaining his delay in answering with “settling into rooms in College.”
April 30, 1944. Tolkien writes writes Letter 64 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on “war as waste, missing Christopher & progress on The Lord of the Rings (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).”
May 2, 1970. Tolkien is awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of Nottingham (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

• Third Age, 2941. Thirteen dwarves (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and Gandalf (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) arrive at Bag End (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). Bilbo (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) learns of the Lonely Mountain (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and Smaug (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and agrees to accompany the dwarves (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and Gandalf (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on their adventure. [April 27]

Events & Shows

Artist Jemima Catlin has noted that several of her Hobbit edition illustrations (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)are on display with the Magic in Middle-earth exhibition (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) at the Shire Hall Museum. [Facebook; Shire Hall, Dorset]

Registration is open for the Austrian Tolkien Society’s Mereth Ethuil (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Report of 2024’s ME (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

The AIST - Associazione Italiana Studi Tolkieniani - will have a conference on April 27th in Dozza on adaptations (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Facebook]

Brno in the Czech Republic is home to a very special picknick this weekend (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Facebook]

Argentinian Tolkien group Eärlindë is hosting its Mereth on May 18th in Buenos Aires (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Instagram]

The Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is happening right now.

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Scholarship & Fandom

Miriam Ellis has Our Francis: The Pope Who Loved Creation and Quoted Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) as well as Bilbo's Memory: The Not-So-Secret-Fire-Works of Gandalf (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Stephen C. Winter has “A Waiting Silence Broods Above the Nameless Land.” All is Prepared for Frodo to Enter Mordor (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Thoughts on Tolkien has The Redemption of the Dead (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Robin Reid has A ‘Tolkien’ of One’s Own: Women Making Their Own ‘Tolkiens’ (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Substack]

Merchandise & Franchise

Free League Publishing (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) have announced the “Elven Expansion for The One Ring™ RPG and 5E (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).”

Inter alia

Why There Hasn’t Been a Star Wars Movie in 6 Years—And What Comes Next (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)[Time]

International law firm Bird & Bird (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has mentioned Tolkien’s ents (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) with a post on the EUDR (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - EU Regulation on Deforestation-free products.

The Informed Alarmist has Palantir: How Tech Bros Misread Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Substack]; for more info on neo-fascists like Thiel see Dark Enlightenment (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Wikipedia]

LibraryThing’s State of Things for April (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is out, celebrating - among other things - nine years of TinyCat. That is your free opportunity (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) to have your “own library” online - like I do (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Write your name in our Earth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), thanks to Landsat / NASA¹.

‘Star Wars’ Series From Carlton Cuse, Nick Cuse in the Works (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)[Hollywood Reporter]; also a new video game is in the making (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Wertzone]

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According to German law I have to inform you all links to enterprises, artists, products etc. are [unpaid advertisements.] Some purchase links may earn me a small commission from Blackwell's (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Bookshop.org (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), or Genialokal (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), the (independent) bookshops of my personal trust (one with a Tolkien connection!)

If you are interested in my other Tolkien-related work please have a look:
The Tolkienist Blog (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Facebook (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Bluesky (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Instagram (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Threads (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Mastodon (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

As this is 2025 I would like to note that this newsletter is 100% human-made, curated by me, Marcel R. Bülles. This also holds true for everything I write with my blog and here at Steady. Also, the average time of curating this newsletter ranges from 12-16 hours for the bi-weekly edition and 6-8 hours for the weekly one.

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